Centaurs are very rare in the doll world, I think because most dollmakers don’t know how to sculpt the horse parts. Kate Sjoberg is an exception to the rule. Her DeviantArt account includes as many horses, unicorns, dragons and other imaginative beasties as humanoid types. Her horses are as naturalistic as they are elegant, and I just love her tiny little dragons. They’re so cute, I want one for a pet!

But it’s not enough for Sjoberg to excel at four-legged critters, she’s also into something I’m dying to learn more about: ball-jointed dolls. Take a look at her bear-rider, below, in two different poses. I’m absolutely fascinated by the idea of hand-made ball-jointed dolls; I think they might just be the wave of the future. (I blogged about ball-jointed dolls a while ago when I featured Marina Bychkova.)

You can see more of Sjoberg’s work on her Elfwood page, and you can buy her pieces on eBay and at Fairies World, She also offers an e-book tutorial on sculpting horses and other four-legged critters, and you can place orders for custom figures on her DeviantArt account. I sprang for the e-book a couple of weeks ago, and it has some great info in it, including a tutorial for rooting hair, which would be useful for dollmakers, too.